


The Greatest of These

by domesticadventures



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 15:36:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1653737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/domesticadventures/pseuds/domesticadventures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Greatest of These

_Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned._

—

_Faith._

Sam used to believe in angels.

But then again, he used to believe in a whole host of things: That you could trust in the kindness of strangers. That good things would happen to good people. That people deserve to be given the benefit of the doubt. That sometimes it’s all right to let your guard down.

He even used to believe in himself. He believed these things until they led Dean to his grave, and then he let them go.

Sam knows Ruby is no angel, but when she pulls him from his self-inflicted perdition, he figures she’s the next best thing.

“I believe in you,” she says, and claims him for her own.

—

_Hope._

Sam dares to think that maybe someday he’ll get  _out_.

He’s always been too smart for his own good, though. Ruby hands him a knife, and each too-slow swing, each too-messy kill, is a reminder that his dreams are ludicrous, laughable fantasies he shouldn’t indulge even if he were twice the hunter he actually is.

_You want to get out?_ a voice whispers in his mind.  _What good is your pre-law degree against these monsters? How many people will you save with your LSAT score?_ Sometimes, the voice is his father’s; other times, it’s Dean’s. But more often than not, it’s his own.

Ruby gave Sam his knife, but it’s only when she teaches him to wield his mind as a weapon that he finally sees a light at the end of the tunnel.

—

_Love._

Sam feels Ruby like fire in his veins long before her blood ever reaches his lips.

Later, he’ll tell himself it was lust just so he can live with himself. He’ll think back on the slow, steady warmth of his relationship with Jessica and say  _this_ could not possibly be the same as  _that_ ; there is nothing caring or tender about this, nothing sustainable.

But there’s something irresistible in the way every inch of her promises something  _better_  (later he will ask  _How could it have been worse?_ and try to ignore the fact that he can think of a hundred ways, a thousand ways). He sees her shot and stabbed and strangled and every time she comes back to him unscathed, and because of this he knows she will never leave him by accident, only by choice. She bleeds and burns with him and for him and because of him, but still she stays.

Sam lets Ruby into his bed; and as if that weren’t enough of a betrayal, he lets her into his heart.

—

_And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love._


End file.
